Alone in Japan (Part 1): Nara

[I've been wanting to post this entry in a looong time but there're just too many stories to tell.]

I'd been wanting to go to Japan for sometime. And I finally had the chance to go. I'm glad I did, cause it's definitely worth it!

This was my first time traveling alone. I was pretty nervous because 1, I'll be in a strange land; 2, most of them don't speak English. But that didn't stop me! I did plenty of research and asked people around. Plus, I have some friends who live there (anyways) so that really helped.

Day 1: Nara + Osaka

Nara is ~80mins travel from Osaka. And since the only place I wanted to see in Nara is the bowing deers in Nara Park, I decided to split the day to see the two cities.

BUT... I got lost. So, that didn't help me. HAHA

I was supposed to meet up with a friend in Osaka at 12nn, but my phone signal stopped working once I reached Nara. I ended up stopping at the wrong station in Nara and ended up going to the wrong park T__T I didn't see any taxi and I don't know how to ride a bike, so my only option was to walk from there to Nara Park. The most "exciting" part of it: the station's 1 hour walk to Heijo Palace Remains (the wrong park) and I was carrying a heavy backpack (why did I do this to myself?!); and it's another hour walk from there to Nara Park.

It was already 11AM and I was in a dilemma whether to go farther or go straight to Osaka. And I didn't even have any signal on my phone. Luckily, I heard a group of friends speaking Tagalog. So I humbly asked one of them if I could connect on their wifi HAHA Thankfully they helped me and finally was able to contact my friend. And when he heard the news, he just laughed at me T__T

Heijo Palace Remains

I decided to just go straight to Osaka because my friend's waiting... So yeah, that was a fail. I'm actually still pretty heartbroken that I didn't see the deers (that makes one of the reasons why I should go back to Japan).

And there I was walking alone under the heat, hungry, in pain-- I was actually recovering from my plantar fascitis during that time-- and carrying my heavy bag. T___T (What a welcoming day one for me! lol)

But you see, the universe was still nice to me. Although my signal's not working, my google maps still worked! And... this happened...